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Breadth was negative, with losers overtaking winners 25 to five. The steep blue-chip decliners were
Merck(MRK),
Disney(DIS),
Boeing(BA) and
UnitedHealth(UNH).

Advancers included
Caterpillar(CAT),
Wal-Mart(WMT) and
American Express(AXP).

The
S&P 500 lost 9 points, or 0.63%, to 1,419. The
Nasdaq sank 22 points, or 0.72%, to 2,992.

At final check,
Google(GOOG) shares ticked up 0.74% and
Apple(AAPL) shares slid 1.7%.

Google's Maps app is again available on Apple's iPhone. The online mapping system returned late Wednesday, nearly three months after Apple replaced Google Maps with its own navigation tool but with disastrous results.

Volumes totaled 3.32 billion shares on the Big Board and 1.83 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners were edging advancers by nearly a 2.3-to-1 ratio on the
New York Stock Exchange and about 1.7-to-1 on the Nasdaq.

The large majority of sectors in the broader market were in the red, weighed down most heavily by energy, consumer cyclicals, health care and utilities. Only the transportation sector was in the green.

Averting the cliff before Christmas will likely help the S&P 500 to rally to 1,500 by year-end or early January, provided that the 2013 fiscal drag does not exceed 1.5% of gross domestic product, according to David Bianco, U.S. equity strategist at Deutsche Bank.

"However, further upside will be sensitive to the legislation's details," he noted. Bianco said that if top income tax bracket rate hikes were to be curbed from what's scheduled, the S&P 500 could reach 1,550 by the end of 2013, and if the new top dividend tax rate was at 25% or less, the benchmark index could reach 1,600 by then.

"The lesser the tax hikes, the more tolerant investors are likely to be of any weak macro data in early 2013," Bianco said.

Julia Coronado, chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas, said that "unfortunately, we need to rely on our elected officials to chart a course toward greater clarity about the future of the U.S. economy, and a healthier balance between the government and business sectors."

Major U.S. stock averages reversed gains in the final hour of trading on Wednesday as
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke answered reporters' questions after the central bank fulfilled the wishes of the markets
for a fresh round of stimulus.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 8 were 343,000, down 29,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised figure of 372,000.

"Initial claims showed substantial improvement in the past week," said Gennadiy Goldberg, a U.S. strategist at TD Securities.

The four-week moving average was 381,500, a decrease of 27,000 from the preceding week's average of 408,500.

Continuing claims for the week ended Dec. 1 were 3.198 million, a decrease of 23,000 from the prior week's upwardly revised level of 3.221 million.

On average, economists were expecting jobless claims to come in at 370,000 and continuing claims of 3.21 million.

The Census Bureau reported that retail sales increased 0.3% in November after falling 0.3% in October. Economists were expecting a 0.5% increase.

Excluding the auto component, sales remained flat like in October, as expected.

"Only three of 13 sectors saw sales decline in November," noted Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak. "The most recent data was boosted by gains within nonstore, building materials and electronics."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday that producer prices fell 0.8% in November after declining 0.2% in October; core data rose 0.1% after being down 0.2% the previous month. Economists, on average, expected producer prices to fall 0.5% in November and for core data to rise 0.2%.

The Census Bureau also said that business inventories rose 0.4% in October after increasing 0.7% in September. A 0.4% rise was expected by economists.

The FTSE 100 in London closed down 0.27% and the DAX in Germany fell 0.43% as the European markets assessed the latest comments from the Fed.

On Thursday, European Union finance ministers reached a banking union agreement and have given the green light on the payment of €49 billion to Greece.

Gold for February delivery plunged $21.10 to settle at $1,696.80 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while January crude oil contracts closed down 88 cents at $85.89 a barrel.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury slid 7/32 to push the yield up to 1.729%. The dollar was up 0.04%, according to the
U.S. dollar index.

In corporate news,
Sprint(S) is looking to purchase the rest of
Clearwire( CLWR ) for $2.1 billion to attain complete ownership of the company's wireless spectrum.

CVS Caremark(CVS - Get Report) shares rose 2% after the pharmacy health-care provider said it was anticipating 2013 profit growth to top growth this year, and announced a dividend hike of 38%.

Ciena(CIEN) posted a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss of 7 cents a share, a penny wider than Wall Street expectations, as the network specialist and its competitors continue to be hurt by spending reductions and postponed purchases by telecom-service providers. Shares gained 1.5%.

Knight Capital Group(KCG) expects to make a decision on its future ownership by early next week,
The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares ticked up 1.9%.

Rival trading firms
Getco and
Virtu Financial, which both have submitted bids to buy the market-maker, are fine-tuning their takeover proposals for Knight, the
Journal said. Final offers are expected to be handed to Knight's board and investors by the end of this week, the people told the newspaper.

Adobe Systems(ADBE), the maker of Photoshop and other software for digital artists, is expected by analysts Thursday to post fourth-quarter earnings of 57 cents, down from 67 cents a year earlier. Shares were down 1.2% on Thursday.

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